Digestive Enzymes and Stool Volume

raintyger

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Does anyone have an idea of how much digestive enzymes affect stool volume? I have started giving my kitty digestive enzymes for constipation issues. The digestive enzymes would decrease stool since more food is being utilized, but I'm wondering by about how much?
 

mrsgreenjeens

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I'd say it depends entirely on what you're feeding.  If you're feeding high carb food, don't think a digestive enzyme would help much, but if you're feeding high protein, then it might help a  reduce it a little bit.  But refresh my memory...weren't you increasing his fiber ?...sorry, I forget...seems like there have been quite a few cats recently with constipation issues.  Sorry


Best bet is to call the company who makes the digestive enzymes and ask them, they should know.  I know when I started using them, I was starting to feed raw, so naturally there was a huge decrease in stool size, but it wasn't due to the digestive enzymes, was due to the food
 
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raintyger

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I'd say it depends entirely on what you're feeding.  If you're feeding high carb food, don't think a digestive enzyme would help much, but if you're feeding high protein, then it might help a  reduce it a little bit.  But refresh my memory...weren't you increasing his fiber ?...sorry, I forget...seems like there have been quite a few cats recently with constipation issues.  Sorry


Best bet is to call the company who makes the digestive enzymes and ask them, they should know.  I know when I started using them, I was starting to feed raw, so naturally there was a huge decrease in stool size, but it wasn't due to the digestive enzymes, was due to the food
Actually, I looked up the enzymes I'm giving and there's a ton of them for digesting carb-related matter. I think it's because the product is marketed for both dogs and cats. It is, however, more comprehensive than a lot of the others that are for both dogs and cats.

I've actually decreased the fiber for Poppy. It seems to work somewhat better as far as regularity. I think Poppy got a GI infection while on the high fiber, so I'd rather stick with low fiber based on that.

Didn't even think of calling the product manufacturer! I guess I'm so used to getting transferred around and 20 minutes on hold, etc., that I don't think of calling the company as a first option.
 

vball91

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Which enzymes are you using? I haven't heard of digestive enzymes being used for constipation. I can see the logic, and I'm curious as to whether they would make enough of a difference to affect stool volume. Please do let us know how this experiment turns out. It is an interesting and novel approach.
 
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raintyger

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Which enzymes are you using? I haven't heard of digestive enzymes being used for constipation. I can see the logic, and I'm curious as to whether they would make enough of a difference to affect stool volume. Please do let us know how this experiment turns out. It is an interesting and novel approach.
Enzyme Miracle.


Note that the web page markets it more for dogs, but the last sentence in their description says it is OK for cats, too. When I bought it last fall the web page was more for both cats and dogs.

I'm not using the digestive enzymes as my primary weapon. I'm using Miralax and low fiber diet, I just thought that the digestive enzymes would give a little extra oomph to my attack. It took a while for me to find out that digestive enzymes would help, got the tip off Yahoo's feline megacolon group. I had the enzymes sitting around from when I tried raw feeding and figured, "Why not?"

Poppy's stool volume is down lately, but I'm not sure if it's the enzymes or because I switched to a grain free food. At first I thought a little brown rice (insoluble fiber) might help transit time, but then found out her regular, grain-free food has flaxseed in it for insoluble fiber.
 
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raintyger

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DUH! I forgot to add that another reason I'm using digestive enzymes is that Poppy is long haired. The digestive enzymes are supposed to help break apart hairballs so that they don't create blockages. I already know about the egg yolk lecithin, but the results were questionable for me.
 
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